5 healthy recipes for your “just started eating” baby!

Being a mom, you must be very particular about what is going inside your baby’s body (esp. if you are a little obsessed and possessive mom, like me :P). Feeding your baby healthy should always be your top priority. Here are five healthy recipes which you can give to those babies who are above the age of 6 months and can’t eat solid foods. Not to mention, food shouldn’t replace mother’s milk at any cost till the baby turns one. Here you go:

1) Sweet potato porriage:

* Boil 1 sweet potato (pressure cook it).
* Peel the boiled sweet potato and mash it; keep aside.
* Take 1 cup of milk in a sauce pan and bring it to boil.
* Add the mashed potato and sugar (according to your baby’s taste).
* Stir for 1-2 minute(s) and then turn off the stove. Let it cool down a bit. Serve warm.

Sweet potato is a good source of iron & calcium. It has vitamin A too. The best part is, it metabolizes really fast. You can also add cardamom powder if your baby likes it.

2) Protein soup:

* Take 2 tbsp of lentil and wash it; keep aside.
* Grate carrot, green beans/french beans and tomato.
* Now in a pressure cooker, add the lentil and grated vegetables along with salt and 1 small cup of water.
* Pressure cook till two whistles.
* When pressure releases, blend the soup with hand blender; add a tsp of ghee and serve.

Lentil as we know is full of protein while carrot is rich in beta-carotene, which changes into vitamin A. Green beans are also rich in may vitamins like-A, B,C & K. They have omega 3 fatty acid too and are rich in iron also, while tomato is a great source of potassium and vitamins.

Blueberries are very good for you baby’s brain and eyes.
Avocados are also very good for brain and are rich source of unsaturated fats.

4) Vegetable khichdi:

* Take 2 tbsp of masoor/moong dal and 1 tbsp of rice. Wash them and keep aside.
* Take 1-2 leaves of spinach; wash and chop it.
* Grate carrot.
* Now in a pressure cooker, add rice and dal with chopped spinach and carrot. Add 6-7 peas and 1 small cup of water along with salt with turmeric.
* Pressure cook till two whistles.
* Blend the khichdi to make smooth puree. Add ghee or you can also give temper it with cumin and asafoetida powder(good for digestion). Serve.

Rice is a great source of carbohydrate. Dal, rich source of protein while spinach is very rich in iron which is very important for baby’s development.

5) Whole wheat pasta with spinach:

* Take 1/2 cup of boiled pasta.
* In a pan fry blanched and chopped spinach along with grated carrot, corn and chopped beans (all sum-up to 1/2 cup)
* Now add salt in it and 1/4 tsp cornflour in it.
* Mix them well; now add 1/4 cup of milk and mix well.
* Add 3-4 tsp of grated parmesan cheese.
* Add pasta in it; mix for 1-2 minutes. Switch off the stove. Serve.

Pasta is a good source of carbohydrate. Parmesan cheese is good in calcium.
You can skip cornflour part if you want. And you can add black pepper powder. My son loves it with black pepper added so I dust little bit of it.

IMPORTANT: Don’t give all new foods to your baby together. Whenever you give anything new to the baby, wait for at least 3 days to observe whether his body is accepting these food properly and if he is not allergic to anything. Then try the another new food after a gap of 3 days.